"There had been pockets of good practice and, although many staff did their best, their efforts were often haphazard, inconsistent and badly coordinated."

In a damning report, the inspectorate said that more than half of prisoners had felt unsafe at some time, while there was insufficient action to tackle violence.

Mr Hardwick said a new governor was appointed shortly before the inspection.

He said: "The new leadership was aware of many of the problems and we saw early signs of a determined effort to tackle them.

"But the prison is just at the start of the process of putting things right again, and it will be a long, hard task to do so."

National Offender Management Service chief executive Michael Spurr said: "As the chief inspector acknowledges, the new governor has begun to tackle the deficiencies and I am confident that these will be properly addressed and rectified."